Recently, Congressman Darrel Issa of the House Oversight Committee demanded that the Securities and Exchange Commission produce documents pertaining to the timing of its announcement of charges leveled at Goldman Sachs, feathering nicely, as it does, with the president’s push for regulatory reform.

In making the announcement when it did, had the commission succumbed to White House pressure to help advance a White House initiative?

Good question.

Of course, the White House denies this, but curiosities abound.

Why, for example, did Internet searches of “Goldman Sachs SEC” produce a sponsored link to a White House Web page, insuring that Obama-spin would be the first thing to which knowledge-seekers were exposed?

I call on Congressman McMahon to join his congressional counterparts in demanding that these troubling questions be answered.

The timing is remarkably suspicious, and if it’s found that the White House had prior knowledge of the charges, it would severely compromise the SEC’s status as an independent watchdog — essentially exposing it as a lapdog of the Obama administration.

If Goldman is guilty, throw the book at them.

But the SEC needs to be an independent entity, and undue influence on the part of the administration must be exposed and condemned if it exists.